Midwest Innocence Project takes on local murder case

Wednesday

Jul 27, 2016 at 12:01 AMJul 27, 2016 at 1:00 PM

By Alan Burdziakaburdziak@columbiatribune.com | 815-1718

The Midwest Innocence Project has taken the case of a Columbia man convicted of murder for the 2001 death of a sports editor at the Tribune. The man’s testimony, which he has claimed was a lie for several years, famously implicated Ryan Ferguson, who served nearly 10 years behind bars before he was released in 2013.

The Kansas City-based organization was founded through the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2000 and works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

Erickson was a central figure in the murder case against Ferguson, a Columbia man whom he implicated in the death of Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt in 2003, nearly two years after Heitholt was killed in the Tribune’s parking lot.

Word spread that Erickson told people he was having dreamlike memories that he and Ferguson killed Heitholt, leading police to pick up Erickson. He later confessed and testified against Ferguson, who was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Years after Ferguson’s 2005 trial, Erickson recanted his testimony and said he had lied under pressure from the prosecuting attorney. Nearly 10 years and several hearings after his arrest, Ferguson’s convictions were vacated and he was released from prison in November 2013. He has a pending federal lawsuit alleging misconduct against six police officers who worked on the case.

Erickson, who is serving a 25-year sentence for second-degree murder and armed criminal action, has struggled for the past 29 months to find an attorney who will properly work on his case, he wrote in a letter to the Tribune. His attorney when Ferguson was released did nothing for him, he said, so he fired her.

Columbia-based Gary Brotherton recently took Erickson’s case and said he was working to write an appeal, but he abruptly dropped the case and now is not licensed to practice law in Missouri.

Farrah Fite, media relations director for the Missouri Bar, said Brotherton is not listed in good standing with the Missouri Supreme Court and therefore cannot practice in the state.

Reached by phone, Brotherton would not talk about Erickson’s case. Erickson's mother, Marianne, wrote to the Tribune that Brotherton was about $17,500 to work on his case, using money raised through the Free Charles Erickson Legal Defense Fund.

When asked about the payment, Brotherton said he did not “think of this as something for the press.”

Erickson claimed Brotherton also had done nothing on his case.

In letters and an interview with the Tribune in March, Erickson was not optimistic about his odds of getting out of prison within the next couple of years, even if something is filed in his case that could help him.